#darrell thorp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZsMuuM1jM&list=PLWEVfKcwQwTbk3D98O_B0q4EcfwM6wLxw&index=9

Darrell Thorp, Nigel’s former assistant and a formidable engineer in his own right, gave a fantastic, lengthy interview and he was asked about boosting higher frequencies during tracking and mixing. Here’s what he had to say:

“Brightness to me is two things: clarity and it's air. Air is making things sound wider. Air can make things sound like they have more imaging. Clarity is just the detail. The detail of a ‘T,’ a fingerpick. The clarity of a snare drum. And quite honestly, I learned a lot of this stuff from Nigel because he was...that guy could dig in some EQ. He wasn't afraid of it.”

He had a couple more interesting quotes about recording with Beck:

“To me, it's a lot to do with the drummer and the instrument that he plays. I made a couple records with Joey Waronker years ago and him producing a record and not playing on them, he showed me so many tips on tuning drums and how to get drums to sound really good when you put a microphone on it. Learning how to take what you have and make it a more precise instrument to record is the first step.

...Plus, a lot of the drum sounds you hear on my recordings are really dry. They're dead, they're in small rooms. [when asked why] That's a Nigel thing. Ever since I worked with Nigel, his drums are always dead. They're just in a booth. That's what he does.

Beck records, the drums are dead. There's no reverb on them whatsoever. That's the thing that people don't understand - the drums and the bass, the core rhythm section, is completely dead, dry, direct, in your face, punchy in your face and everything else is swirling around it.

There were a lot of reverb effects on, like, The Information. Just plates and things like that on the snare. Like "Dark Star" but that's rare.

[at tracking] When the artist comes in, I just want it to have as much life as possible - and clarity so people can really understand what it is that they're recording. What did we just do. Is it a good take? Is it a bad take? That has to go hand in hand with engineering.

With strings, I don't use more than fourteen pieces. Less is more. And maybe you can just double it if you're looking for a richer sound. Then it's just mic placement. At AIR Lyndhurst in London (church), they put up a Decca tree. And you push up three faders, pan it, get the level, check your phase and it's just there.

For a smaller section and a smaller room, I like doing both, where I'm using the rooms, if there's a Decca tree, but if there's not, it's usually just a stereo pair of M50s. And then from there I do more of a close micing as well. On the individual sections to get that more direct sound. It's case dependent. Are the strings playing very definitive parts or are they playing a nice pretty pad?

Sea Change, most of those strings are very direct sounding with chamber. But they're very, all the parts of that record, they're playing very specific "lead"-y lines. They're very much the lead instrument aside from the vocal.

I love Beck. He's my favorite songwriter. I didn't know what we were up to when we started Morning Phase...The songs are in raw form [at inception]. They're pretty much like the chordal structure of what the verse is going to be and what the chorus is going to be and he may have a melody line written. He usually has a melody line somewhat written already and/ or he's got maybe a lyric that goes along with it. But Beck is very much an inspired artist, he just comes with like a raw very very basic form of a song to the studio and he wants to hear it played by a band. Then the next thing, a couple hours later, he's got a song because he's fleshed out the chordal structure, he's got more of a melody going on in his head...Then from there, it's all about bells and whistles as far as basic overdubs and him singing and writing lyrics. [To cherrypick one strategy from Beck for younger artists] I think it would be the part of the confidence of going into the studio and making a record.

On Chaos and Creation in the Backyard:

Photo by: George Clarke Deafheaven have announced that their new record, titled Infinite Granite, will arrive on August 20th via Sargent House. The group recorded the effort at Atomic Garden East with produced Justin Meldal-Johnsen, with Darrell Thorp handled mixing duties. Art design was created by Nick Steinhardt. An audio visualizer for the album’s first single, “Great Mass of Color”.…

Darrell was on Jamie Lidell’s excellent new podcast Hanging Out with Audiophiles:

“I’m a 1176 guy on vocals. I learned that from Nigel.”

“Just working with Nigel. He just loved working with me and I just loved working with him...He first came into Ocean Way with Travis for the Invisible Band and that was three weeks...Then, with Radiohead, he booked Studio B (at Ocean Way) for two and a half, almost three weeks,” which was the start of Hail to the Thief. And then he asked if I’d be interested...Sure!’”

“Nigel taught me the theory of just commit. Go for the sound and that’s the sound. Don’t be afraid to commit too much to where you make a mistake and go, ‘Oh, I made a mistake, ah, let’s re do it.’ The ideology of recording in American recording society was capture it, don’t make it anything. Neutral...[Nigel was like] Make it finished. Now. Move on.”

[discussing Nigel’s influence]“I’m extremely heavy-handed EQ-wise going to Pro Tools or tape. Boost. Boost like a madman. I still compress a lot like him. He’s an 1176 guy, which is why I’m an 1176 guy. The 1176 is always on the same setting, really slow attack, quick release. 4:1 (depending on the program).”

He also confirms what we all know: Nigel owns the Dalcon console from Ocean Way’s Studio B and it resides at his place in East London. 

He also mentions liking AKG C12As on toms, SM57s on snare top and bottom, 4038 as ribbon of choice, Neumann U47FET on kick, and the AEA A440 on mono overhead. Mentioned a friend of his uses an RCA 44 on kick and says it’s fine on kick drum. 

Check it out: 

If you’re a subscriber to Puremix.net, you may have seen Darrell Thorp’s tutorial, where he mixes a band called Future Elevators. If you don’t remember, Darrell was Nigel’s assistant for a number of records, done at Ocean Way (now United Recording) in California and all over.

If you watch the tutorial, one of the things you’ll notice is that he, like Mikko Gordon, also uses an 1176 (plugin) on the slowest attack and fastest release at a 4:1 ratio. This is on a variety of sources.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. 

You also see him use the UAD API 550A plugin a lot, adding 10k and 110 to guitars.